Page 3 of The Time Of Kings

“Which brings us to now.”

I shook my head a little and said bitterly, “So, what? You're now saying I have to go back to the past again…? That Amelia and I have always been destined to do this?”

I felt my hand being squeezed and looked up into my beautiful daughter’s face, feeling her strength flowing through me as she assured,

“It will be fine, Mum. We will be together.”

I covered her hand with my own and held it back just as tight before Sophia interrupted,

“Er, excuse me, aren’t you forgetting somebody.”

“Yeah, like two bodacious time traveling babes,” Pip answered, jerking a thumb in between the two of them andmaking me grin. Because of course, they wouldn’t let us go alone. Jesus, but it was thirty years ago again.

“Wait, what are you saying?” Amelia asked in confusion, making me scoff a laugh. Because as we all stood facing each other, as if at the ready to make another vow, Sophia placed each hand at our shoulders and said,

“What, you didn't really think we'd let you guys go alone, did you?”

Amelia looked to each of us and released a deep sigh. One I could tell was born from having a torn mind. She wanted us there as much as she didn’t. Because the comfort of knowing you weren’t alone battled against the worry of getting someone hurt by the decisions you made. And I understood that more than most. But before she could argue against our decisions, I told her,

“Okay, fine, I’m in, but only because Amelia is and not because any Oracle told me to.” But even as I said this, I knew I was lying. Because if Pythia had told me I needed to do this to save others, then I would have. I just wished I could have done this without Amelia needing to be dragged into it with me.

Meaning, I was once again angry at the Fates, for not giving her a damn minute to catch her breath before they expected her to step up yet again. I just wanted to take the burden from her and wish that she could have sat this one out. But unfortunately, the Fates didn’t work that way.

They never did.

“She’s not gonna let this wrong date thing go, is she?” Pip commented to Sophia, making me shoot them both a look, and it was one that promised we would be discussing this later without Amelia there to witness it. The guilt was easy to see on both of their faces.

“So, we are really doing this… we are going back in the past?” Amelia asked, drawing me back to the now.

It was easy to see the trepidation on her face, and she was no doubt questioning how in all the Gods names we were going to achieve this. Hence why I asked if anyone had any idea to what time period we were going back to, just praying it was one that had toilets and not a sugared mouse in sight.

“If you'd have asked me an hour ago, I would never have been able to guess but now…” Amelia answered, pausing long enough to hand me a scroll of paper that revealed a poem of sorts. “…now I'm thinking it has something to do with the Rosetta stone.”

As soon as she said this, I felt the jolt to my chest as another Fated puzzle piece slotted into place. And Sophia knew, which was why she granted me a look,one Amelia didn’t miss.

“What…? Oh come on, what am I missing now?” she asked, making me sigh before admitting,

“I've been dreaming of a stone cracking, pieces of it being used as foundation, light forming around it. I haven't wanted to tell your father but, well… let's just say now I'm not surprised why.”

Damn it and all those dreams tugging at my Fate tethered puppet strings.

“Er, on that cheery marital note, so about our husbands?” Pip said, pointing out the obvious first hurdle we would all have to jump over.

“Oh shit, yeah, we're not telling them,” Sophia answered first, making me quickly follow suit, after Amelia agreed,

“Yeah, definitely not.”

“Okay, cool, so all on the same page then… Gotcha. Well I would say girly road trip but…” Pip started, only thanks to knowing our naughty Imp too well, Amelia and I were quick to react. However, only one of us chose not to encourage this, whereas my wonderfully geeky daughter was always happy to indulge her crazy aunt.

“Don’t go there, Pip,” I warned.

“Oh yeah, say it, Pip,” Amelia said, grinning.

“Oh, I sooo am gonna, my friend… ‘cause where we're going, we don't need roads…’What? I'm sorry, okay, Toots? It just had to be done… I mean, there's gonna be a lot of Back to the Future references here so it would be best if we all just get used to it now, okay?” Pip argued, slapping my daughter’s hand with a high five. This while Sophia and I were left to groan, as like I said, it was thirty years ago all over again.

“So, we're really going to do this then, were really gonna to go back in time?” Amelia asked with all jokes aside.

“We are not letting you do this alone… so yeah, I guess we are,” Sophia said.

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